degrading treatment and lack of respect for the dignity of the families. Finally,
they submit that the failure of the State to properly inquire into the treatment
of the Victims at the hands of the police and prosecute the perpetrators also
resulted in a violation of Article 5.
193.
In relation to the first argument, the Complainants refer to the level of force
used by the police to break up the protest and force protestors onto the buses,
including assault, spraying with water cannons, separation from family, verbal
abuse and that they were then taken into unexplained and indefinite detention.
They state that because through all of this they were under the control of the
State, the onus is on the State to prove that their physical and mental suffering
was not caused by the State. The Commission already found above that the
State had not provided sufficient evidence to disprove the submission that
some victims were assaulted by police. The State has further not made any
submissions denying the separation of families, verbal abuse, or that the
location of detention was undisclosed, and they confirmed the use of water
cannons. The Commission should now determine whether the treatment
amounted to a violation of dignity or inhuman or degrading treatment.
194.
Under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, “cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment” include lesser acts, “which do not
amount to torture as defined in article I,49 when such acts are committed by or
at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or
other person acting in an official capacity.”50 Under the definition of torture
there is a limitation, which also applies here, namely that “[i]t does not include
pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful
sanctions.”
Torture is defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information
or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having
committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of
any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or
suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
50 Article 16.1 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment.
49
52